A motor-vehicle door latch normally has a housing, a lock fork on the housing engageable with a door bolt and pivotable between a holding position engaged around the bolt and retaining it on the housing and a freeing position permitting the door bolt to move into and out of the housing, and a release pawl engageable with the fork and displaceable between a latched position retaining the fork in the holding position and an unlatched position unengageable with the fork and permitting the fork to move into the freeing position. An actuating mechanism is movable between an actuated position and an unactuated position and normally has an inside and an outside actuating lever connected to respective door handles.
Such a system is often provided with a child-safety cutout which allows the inside door handle to be disconnected. Thus if a child accidentally or intentionally actuates the inside handle, the door will not open. The child-safety on position is often set remotely, by actuation of a switch on the dashboard, and is effected in the latch by an electric motor or actuator.
As described in British patent document 2,073,299 filed Mar. 27, 1980 by M. Kogyo a problem with such a latch is that if an attempt is made to turn on the child-safety feature while the latch is open and/or actuated, such setting will fail. In other words the user will, for instance, push the button to turn on the child-safety feature but, because one door is still open or being closed, the setting will not be effected in that door. Obviously such a situation can lead to an accident, just the type of accident the child-safety feature is intended to prevent.